Crow Creek Mine

Shortly before reaching Anchorage, we came to the Crow Creek Mine, a National Historic Site.

                      The first claims at Crow Creek were staked in 1897.

                            The original buildings were built in 1898 and are still standing.

The present owners have lived here since 1969 and raised their three children with no electricity, telephone or running water. It's a history of not only buildings and equipment, but of a lifestyle of days gone by.

                              The blacksmith shop contains all original tools.

                                                           The barn--

                              --used for horses, chickens and storing wood.

                              The Ice House to store butter, dried fruit and meats--

                                        was double walled with sawdust insulation.

                               The Commissary--Tool shed and company store.

                                                      Another Tool Shed.

              Meat Cache-- Used to hang and store fresh game: bear, moose and goats.

                                             Mess Hall-- The cook stove is still used.

                                                           Bunk House--

                                      How could any adventurer pass up a sign like this?

                                   I dove into the bushes and was off to Nome!

                               Twenty minutes later I came to this sign and took it to the right.

                              It followed a beautiful rainforest path on the Iditarod
                                  trail--

                                           --to the hand tram over glacier Creek.

                                          This seemed like something I should do, so--

                                                --off I went.

                                          There's no turning back now--

                                                -and no looking down either.

                                          Momma Mia-What have I done?

                                                 It was really a great ride.

Anatomy Of A Glacier

Now that we have taken you to many glaciers, licked the glacial ice, and even found Glacial Ice Worms, a lesson on glaciers is long overdue.

As much of our travel the last few weeks has been along the Gulf of Alaska, across Prince William Sound and in the Chugach National Forest,
we find the information in this folder to be very helpful to us.

Our travels will now take us inland away from the coastal mountains and glaciers we have seen for the last few weeks, but we will bring home with us a bucket of glacial silt or rock flour.

Cool Companions

We begin our pursuit for the Glacial Ice Worm this afternoon at the Byron Glacier trailhead --

-and note it's been five days since bears were last seen on the trail.

                                It's an easy one mile hike to the glacier face --

-and we are told the snow on the mountain tops is still as deep as fifty feet-

                                -but the danger of avalanches is now over.

                                A short hike onto the slippery snowpack --

                                   -revealed large areas of red algae,

looking like dirt upon the snow, but growing as natures food for the Ice Worm.

It's bright and sunny today, not a good day to find them, but we do have several to show you.

                                  We hope you enjoyed this hike as much as we did!